The Crown’s latest season touches on Princess Alice’s life.
We’re warning you from now - if you haven’t caught up on the first few episodes of The Crown’s third season (what you waiting for, mate?) this is going to be a little bit of a spoiler, so proceed with caution. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can get to the good stuff.
Prince Philip’s mother and a lesser known member of the Royal Family, Princess Alice of Battenburg, is highlighted very much in episode four, getting an insight into Prince Philip’s roots, and the truths about her that were silenced for a long time.
What we didn’t know though, was that her early childhood involved our islands. Princess Alice was born at Windsor Castle in 1885 to Prince Louis of Battenberg and wife Princess Victoria of Hesse. Fun fact: her great-grandmother Queen Victoria was present during that very moment. She was brought up in different places including Darmstadt, Jugenheim, London and yep, Malta! Her father was occasionally stationed here during his time as a naval officer.
Her son, the Duke of Edinburgh, also spent a lot of time here, with the-then Princess Elizabeth while stationed on our islands as a naval officer in the Mediterranean Fleet. The monarchs stayed at Villa Guardamangia in Pieta with Prince Philip’s uncle and aunt, the Earl and Countess Mountbatten of Burma.
After living on our islands for two years between 1949 and 1951, the royal couple returned in subsequent years to celebrate the ties the UK has with Malta, and also giving the Queen a chance to visit her favourite country once again. Prince Philip and the Queen visited in 1954, 1967, 1992, 2005, 2007, and 2015 for various occasions.
Did you know about the royals' close relationship with Malta?